FOREWORD: book: series of studies appeared in Evangelical Magazine; two kinds of interest in Christian things: 1) balconers (only theoretical), 2) traveller (practical, existential) -> this is a book for travellers; root of church’s weakness: ignorance of God due to two trends: Christian minds have been 1) conformed to the modern spirit 2) confused by the modern skepticism (both about divine revelation and unity of truth, God is not “out there” but “down here” in the psyche);

I. KNOW THE LORD

1. STUDY OF GOD: “It has been said by someone that ‘the proper study of mankind is man’. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence ot the great God whom he calls his rather.” (C. H. Spurgeon); five basic principles: 1) “God has spoken to man, and the Bible is His Word, given to us to make us wise unto salvation.” 2) “God is Lord and King over His world; He rules all things for His own glory, displaying His perfections in all that He does, in order that men and angels may worship and adore Him.” 3) “God is Saviour, active in sovereign love through the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue believers from the guilt and power of sin, to adopt them as His sons, and to bless them accordingly.” 4) “God is Triune; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it, and the Spirit applying it.” 5) “Godliness means responding to God’s revelation in trust and ebedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and lived in the light of God’s Word. This, and nothing else, is true religion.”; fourth question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “What is God? - God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”; Stephen Charnock: The Existence and Attributes of God (series of sermons, 1682); theological knowledge shouldn’t be an end in itself (<-> “knowledge puffs up”, 1Cor 8:1) -> ultimate purpose should be to know God himself better (knowledge of God instead of knowledge about God) -> each truth we learn about God must be turned into prayer and praise before Him; meditation: lost art: *“activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God”*, it is talking to oneself about God and oneself, often arguing with oneself;
2. PEOPLE WHO KNOW THEIR GOD: you can know a lot about God without much knowledge of Him; theology != knowing God; you can know a lot about godliness without much knowledge of God; “The question is not whether we are good at theology, […] the question is, can we say, simply, honestly, not because we feel that as evangelicals we ought to, but because it is plain matter of fact, that we have known God, and that because we have known God the unpleasantness we have had, or the pleasantness we have not had, through being Christians does not matter to us? If we really knew God, this is what we would be saying, and if we are not saying it, that is a sign that we need to face ourselves more sharply with the difference between knowing God and merely knowing about Him.”; effects of knowledge of God on man: 1) having great energy for God (“stand firm and take action” Dan 11:32), channeled into prayer; little energy for prayer: sign of lack of knowledge of God; 2) having great thoughts of God (Dan 2:20-22); 3) showing great boldness for God (Acts 5:29); 4) having great contentment in God (Rom 5:1); in order to have such knowledge of God, we must 1) recognize how much we lack knowledge of God 2) seek the Saviour
3. KNOWING & BEING KNOWN: knowledge of God: reason & purpose of our existence, eternal life (Jn 17:3), best thing in life (Jer 9:23), gives God most pleasure (Hos 6:6); “Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.”; what does it mean to know God?: knowing how it is likely to react and behave under specific circumstances (eg horse), but knowing a human being depends on them allowing us to know him (especially if he is “above” us - eg Queen); God treats us as covenant partner (1Cor 3:9); “What, then, does the activity of knowing God involve? Holding together the various elements involved in this relationship, as we have sketched it out, we must say that knowing God involves, first, listening to God’s word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit inter- prets it, in application to oneself; second, noting God’s nature and character, as His word and works reveal it; third, accepting His invitations, and doing what He commands; fourth, recognising, and rejoicing in, the love that He has shown in thus approaching one and drawing one into this divine fellowship.”; analogies: man knowing God ~ son knowing father, wife knowing husband, subject knowing king, sheep knowing shepherd -> knower “looks up” to the one known, who takes responsibility for the welfare of the knower; knowing God only possible through Christ (Jn 14:6); to know Jesus = to be saved by him; knowing God is a matter of 1) personal dealing 2) personal involvement (~ tasting a dish, Ps 34:8), similar to friends, knowing God is an emotional relationship as well as intellectual and volitional one; believer must be emotionally involved in the victories/vicissitudes of God’s causes in the world (rejoice when God is honored, distressed when he is flouted); 3) grace: we do not make friends with God - he makes friends with us; what matters is not the fact that I know God but that he knows me; relief: he knows the worst about me but still wants me as his friend -> incentive to worship
4. THE ONLY TRUE GOD: idolatry: not just worshipping false gods but worshipping the true God by images (2nd commandment) -> includes pictures of Christ as well!; reasons: 2) images obscure God’s glory -> dishonor him; images conceal most (of not all) of the truth about God (golden calf: symbolizes God’s strength but hid his glory, crucifix: displays Christ’s human weakness but conceals divine strength); 2) images mislead men (they convey false ideas about God), if you keep looking at a picture of God you will think of him as the picture represents him -> to the extent that the image fails to tell the truth about God, to that extent you fail to worship God in truth; God forbids both physical and mental images of Him; those who think they are free to think of God as they like are breaking the second commandment; negative purpose: warning against false worship, positive purpose: God is beyond our comprehension (Is 55:8), we are called to humble ourselves and let God teach us what He is like and how we should think of Him (Rom 11:33); God is very different from us, we cannot know Him unless He makes himself known to us - which He did; how can we know if we worship the one true God in truth? -> test: do you look habitually to the person and work of Jesus Christ as showing the final truth about the nature of God?
5. GOD INCARNATE: real difficulty of the gospel: not the resurrection or miracles but the incarnation; other difficulties usually spring from here; kenosis (‘emptying’) theory: Son had to renounce some of his divine qualities to be fully human <-> not supported by scripture (‘emptying’ refers to divine glory not attributes!); Jesus’ deity was not reduced but his divine capacities (eg omniscience) was restrained (<- Jesus didn’t act/know independently from the Father: eg he didn’t know the date of his return not because of he had given up omniscience at incarnation but because the Father didn’t make this information available to him until his resurrection); Christmas spirit: not to pass by human needs, not just to have a nice middle-class Christian life but to make ourselves poor to do good to others

6. HE SHALL TESTIFY: Trinity: three persons, one God, Son doing the will of the Father, Spirit doing the will of the Father and the Son; work of the Spirit equally important but doctrine of the Holy Spirit are consistently ignored in the Church; without Holy Spirit there would be no gospel and no New Testament, no faith, no new birth -> no Christians; He testified by revealing & inspiring to the apostles & by illuminating to everyone else;

   II. BEHOLD YOUR GOD!

7. GOD UNCHANGING: sense of remoteness between our time and the time of the Bible -> illusion that springs from failing to see the link between the two: God who is immutable: His life/character/truth/ways/purposes/Son does not change
8. MAJESTY OF GOD: majesty = ‘greatness’; today’s focus: God is personal -> impression: God is weak like a person <-> God is personal and majestic too; steps to develop right idea of God’s greatness: 1) remove from our thoughts of God limits that would make Him small (Palms 139) 2) compare Him with powers and forces which we regard as great (tasks/nations/world/great men/stars - Is 40:12ff)
9. GOD ONLY WISE: biblical wisdom: moral & intellectual; practical side of moral goodness; God’s wisdom cannot be frustrated (unlike eg Ahithophel’s counsel - 2Sam 17) -> God is omnipotent just as he is omniscient (infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom); we can only understand his wisdom if we understand his purpose (which is not to keep a fallen world happy, or make ungodliness comfortable, or to give a trouble-free life for Christians); God’s original purpose: man should love & honor & praise Him, enjoy & use creation according to His will; His ultimate goal will only be fully realized in the next world <-> His immediate objective is to bring man into a loving relationship with Him; illustration of God’s wisdom in biblical biography: Abraham (by nature not too responsible or strong in principles, but God makes him a new man, he needs to learn the practice of living in God’s presence -> new characteristics: meekness, courage, patience, obedience, prayer), Jacob (opportunistic, amoral, had to learn to depend on God instead of relying on himself -> God lamed him as a perpetual reminder of his spiritual weakness), Joseph (God used sustained hardship to test, refine and mature him); God ordering events in human life for double purpose: 1) man’s own personal sanctification 2) fulfilling his plan in the life of his people; -> don’t be surprised of unexpected difficulties or discouragements -> God is his wisdom wants to teach us something we have not attained yet (eg patience, good humour, compassion, humility, meekness or self-denial/self-distrust, break our complacency, unreality, undetected forms of pride) or he wants to prepare us for future service; God knows exactly what He is doing; how to respond to trying situations: 1) take them as from God, 2) seek God’s face specifically about them (eg Paul about his thorn) - regardless of any further purpose, troubles will always have been sent to keep us humble & let power of Christ show forth in our mortal lives
10. GOD’S WISDOM & OURS: attributes of God: incommunicable (characteristic to God alone: independent, immutable, infinite, simple) & communicable (each has corresponding part in man: spiritual, free, omnipotent, good, true, holy, righteous - wisdom is also part of it); God is ready to give wisdom to those who desires it & ready to take necessary steps to obtain it: 1) learn to reference God 2) learn to receive God’s word (how long is it since you read through the Bible? do you spend as much time with the Bible each day as you do with the newspaper?); the gift of God’s wisdom is not an ability to understand God’s purpose in events around us (eg ~ entering into a signal box in a railway station) but rather, divine wisdom enables you to do the right thing in actual situations in everyday life (~ driving a car); to live wisely, we must be clear sighted and realistic (~ to drive well, you have to focus on what’s in front of you); Ecclesiastes: optimistic expectation of trying to find the divine purpose in everything will lead you to pessimistic conclusions; wisdom = fearing God & keeping his commandments; “seek grace to work hard at whatever life calls you to do & enjoy your work as you do it; leave to God its issues, let Him measure its ultimate worth; your part is to use all good sense and enterprise at your command in exploiting the opportunities that lie before you”; we can trust & rejoice in God even when we cannot discern His path; wisdom: choosing the best means to the best end, not sharing in all His knowledge but disposition to confess that He is wise and cleaving to Him through thick and thin.
11. THY WORD IS TRUTH: two facts about God: 1) He is king (God’s rule) 2) He speaks (God’s word); studying one helps understand the other; ancient kings spoke on two levels: 1) to enact laws which determine environment 2) establish personal link between himself and his subjects -> similarly, God speaks to 1) determine our environment 2) engage our minds and hearts; ‘torah’ (=’instruction’): threefold character: 1) law 2) promise 3) testimony; God speaks to us not only to move us to do what he wants but so we can know Him and we may live Him (He knows all about us but we can know nothing about Him unless He tells us); God’s word: both information & invitation; Genesis 1-3: God’s word 1) creates the environment 2) commands man’s obedience 3) invites man to trust Him -> rest of the Bible these are reiterated, no new categories; all circumstances & events are determined by God’s word; mark if true humility: man “trembles at God’s word”; we are too obey God’s word not just because he tells us to but because it is true; truth in Bible primarily quality of persons (stable, reliable, undeceived), of positions only secondarily; 1) God’s commands are true (they tell unchanging truth about our own nature, poison destroys our body -> disobeying God’s commandment destroys our soul -> de-humanized) 2) God’s promises are true (<- God keeps them because of His faithfulness, focusing on God’s promises comforts us, helps us in prayer and keep our mind quiet -> promise boxes); Christian: man who acknowledges & lives under the word of God;
12. LOVE OF GOD: ‘God is love’: most tremendous & most misunderstood saying in the Bible; to know God’s love = heaven on earth; normal part of Christian life; ‘the love of God has flooded our hearts by the Holy Spirit’ (Rom 5:5); today we got preoccupied with extraordinary ministries of the Spirit (heading, tongues) and neglect the ordinary ones (filling our hearts with love) which is more important; right-minded concern for revival: not seeking after tongues but for God’s love; ‘God is love’ is not the complete truth about God, it presupposes rest of biblical witness about God; “It is not possible to argue that a God who is love cannot also be a God who condemns and punishes the disobedient; for it is precisely of the God who does these very things that John is speaking.”; to avoid misunderstanding the statement, keep in conjunction with two other: 1) ‘God is spirit’ (has no body, no parts, no passions = no fluctuating, involuntary emotions but deliberate, voluntary choices); 2) ‘God is light’ (holy, pure); “So the God who is love is first and foremost light, and sentimental ideas of His love as an indulgent, benevolent softness, divorced from moral standards and concerns, must therefore be ruled out from the start. God’s love is holy love. […] Scripture does not allow us to suppose that because God is love we may look to Him to confer happiness on people who will not seek holiness, or to shield His loved ones from trouble when He knows that they need trouble to further their sanctification.”; for the Christian, ‘God is love’ means His love finds expression in everything He says and does (Rom 8:28) -> every single thing that happens to him expresses God’s love for him -> reason to rejoice & be content even when humanly speaking, things are going wrong; “God’s love is an exercise of His goodness towards individual sinners whereby, having identified Himself with their welfare, He has given His Son to be their Saviour, and now brings them to know and enjoy Him in a covenant relation.”; is it true that God is love for me? if so, why do I grumble my circumstances? why am I fearful, stressed, half-hearted? why do I allow my loyalties to be divided?; John point with ‘God is love’ -> we should love one another too (1 Jn 4:11); examine yourself: could someone learn from my love towards others (spouse, kids, neighbors, colleagues) anything about God’s love to me?
13. GRACE OF GOD: grace (charis) and love (agape): wholly Christian usage, unknown to Graeco-Roman ethics; few in the church actually believe it; presuppositions of grace: 1) moral ill-desert of man (modern man tends to have a high view of himself, not as a rebel against God), 2) God’s retributive justice (tendency to turn a blind eye to all wrongdoing, punishment should be only last resort, willingness to tolerate evil is a virtue), 3) spiritual impotence of man (belief: we can repair our own relationship with God), 4) God’s sovereign freedom (God is obliged to love us, God’s job is to forgive); grace is the 1) source of pardon of sin 2) motive of the plan of salvation 3) guarantee of the preservation of the saints
14. GOD THE JUDGE: many speak of God who loves us but recoils from the idea thinking of God the judge; yet it’s central in the Bible - both in OT and NT; Jesus is not just Saviour but Judge too; judge: 1) person with authority (God both lawgiver & judge) 2) person identified with what is good and right (not cold and dispassionate) 3) person of wisdom, to discern truth (God is the searcher of the hearts, nothing can escape Him, his judgement is according to truth: both factual & moral) 4) person of power, to execute sentence (God legislates, sentences and punishes); heart of God’s justice: retribution: rendering to men what they have deserved, both Christians and non-Christians; “God will see that each man sooner or later receives what he deserves - if not here, then hereafter. This is one of the basic facts of life.”; moral indifference is sign of imperfection; we will be judged according to our works -> this is an index of what is in the heart; judgement will be according to our knowledge; call on Jesus, the coming judge to be your present Saviour
15. WRATH OF GOD: wrath is an attribute of God (more Scripture references in anger than on love), yet it has become taboo in modern society; if the Bible openly talk about the wrath of God, why are we hesitant? root cause: wrath doesn’t seem to be worthy of God: idea of wrath suggests 1) irrational lack of self-control, wounded pride, bad temper <-> God’s anthropomorphisms don’t imply to include human limitations/imperfections (God’s love doesn’t imply foolish, impulsive, immoral actions -> God’s wrath isn’t capricious, self-indulgent either but a right & necessary reaction to objective moral evil) 2) cruelty <-> cruelty is always immoral but God’s wrath is always judicial; God’s wrath is something that men choose for themselves; “The unbeliever has preferred to be by himself, without God, defying God, having God against him, and he shall have his preference. Nobody stands under the wrath of God save those who have chosen to do so. The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications: nothing more, and equally nothing less […] what God is hereby doing is no more than to ratify and confirm judgments which those whom He ‘visits’ have already passed on themselves by the course they have chosen to follow.”; example: Adam chose to hide before God before God drive him out; Romans (-> gateway to Bible): 1) meaning of God’s wrath: God’s resolute action in punishing sin & expression of his justice; 2) revelation of God’s wrath: constant (going on all the time) & universal (reaching those whom the gospel has not reached yet); “Everywhere the Christian observes a pattern of degeneration, constantly working itself out […] In this decline we are to recognise the present action of divine wrath, in a process of judicial hardening and withdrawal of restraints, whereby men are given up to their own corrupt preferences and so come to put into practice more and more uninhibitedly the lusts of their sinful hearts. […] If you want proof that the wrath of God, revealed as a fact in your conscience, is already working as a force in the world, Paul would say, you need only look at life around you, and see what God has given men up to. And who today, nineteen centuries after he wrote, could challenge his thesis?” (pp. 140-141); 3) deliverance from God’s wrath: through the blood of Jesus Christ;
16. GOODNESS AND SEVERITY: “behold therefore the goodness and severity of God” (Rom 11:22) -> both are attributes of God, both must be acknowledged together; otherwise: Santa Claus theology: sin is no problem, atonement needles <-> cannot cope with the fact of evil unless it denies God’s omnipotence (result: kind God who means well but cannot protect from you trouble); God’s goodness: sum total of His revealed excellences; generosity: focal point of God’s moral perfection; reformed theologians: ‘common grace’ (creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life) vs ‘special grace’ (economy of salvation) -> “God is good to all in some ways and to some in all ways”; God’s severity (=’cutting off’): God’s decisive withdrawal of his goodness who have spurned it; “behind every display of divine goodness stands a threat of severity in judgment if that goodness is scorned”; “the goodness of God is meant to lead you to repentance” (J. B. Phillips); but God is patient in His severity (‘slow to anger’); three lessons: 1) appreciate the goodness of God: count your blessings, learn not to take natural benefits for granted, learn to thank God for them all; 2) appreciate the patience of God: learn to marvel at His patience, seek grace to imitate it in your dealings with other men; 3) appreciate the discipline of God: if He puts “thorns in your bed” (Whitefield) it is only to wake you up from sleep of spiritual death or complacency; is it a discipline of love -> take it accordingly

17. JEALOUS GOD: sounds offensive - how can jealousy be a virtue in God when it is a vice in man? -> it is an anthropomorphism: remember that qualities are corrupted by sin in humans but not in God (eg God’s wrath is not ignoble outburst of human anger ~ God’s jealousy is not a compound of frustration, envy but a praiseworthy zeal to preserve something supremely precious); human jealousy has two types: vicious (“I want what you’ve got, and I hate you because I haven’t got it”) vs virtuous (zeal to protect a love-relationship, or to avenge it when broken, not as a blind reaction to wounded pride but as the fruit of marital affection); “Neither [in Numbers 5:11-31] nor in the further reference to the wronged husband’s jealousy’ in Proverbs 6:34 does Scripture hint that his attitude is moraly questionable; rather, it treats his resolve to guard his marriage against attack, and to take action against anyone who violates it, as natural, normal, and right, and a proof that he values marriage as he should.”; God’s jealousy is always the latter (God’s covenant ~ marriage with Israel; worship of idols ~ spiritual adultery); ” From these passages we see plainly what God meant by telling Moses that His name was ‘Jealous’. He meant that He demands from those whom He has loved and redeemed utter and absolute loyalty, and will vindicate His claim by stern action against them if they betray His love by unfaithfulness.”; application: 1) God’s jealousy requires us to be zealous for God (sometimes same word is used for zeal and jealousy); religious zeal: burning desire to please God, to do His will & to advance His glory in the world; zealous man: “man of one thing” -> to please God; zeal is commanded & commended in Scripture (Tit 2:14); 2) God’s jealousy threatens churches which are not zealous for God (eg church of Laodicea - Rev 3:15,19 -> “be zealous and repent”)

    III. IF GOD BE FOR US

18. HEART OF THE GOSPEL: propitiation: averting God’s anger by an offering; propitiation in NT: 1) rationale of God’s justification of sinners (Rom 3:21-26), 2) rationale of the incarnation of God the Son (Heb 2:17), 3) heavenly ministry of our Lord (1Jn 2:1), 4) definition of the love of God (1Jn 4:8-10), a gospel without propitiation at its heart is not the gospel that Paul preached (Gal 1:8); expiation: covering/putting away the sin <-> propitiation: expiation + pacifying God’s wrath; liberal theology (C. H. Dodd): God is not angry at human sin -> expiation is enough (but: Rom 1:18); God’s wrath: not arbitrary, conceited anger (-> pagan gods) or sinful, infantile anger (-> humans) but “holy revulsion against that which is the contradiction of His holiness” (John Murray), a righteous anger (right reaction of morally perfect Creator towards moral perversity in the creature); propitiation: 1) is the work of God Himself (he took the initiative); “The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely this that God loved the objects of His wrath so much that He gave His own Son to the end that He by His blood should make provision for the removal of this wrath.” (John Murray: Atonement), 2) was made by the death of Jesus Christ (representative substitution: innocent taking the place of the guilty), 3) manifests God’s righteousness; gospel tells us that our Creator has become our Redeemer; it brings solution to human problems by first solving a deeper problem: man’s relation with God (which is the ultimate cause of all human problems); even though the word propitiation appears only 4x in the NT, it’s thought is always present; not only the truth of propitiation lead to the heart of the gospel, it also gives us a vantage point to see the heart of other things too: 1) driving force in the life of Jesus (Jesus seems to be a man of action, who knew himself to be a divine person, whose mission centered on his death - yet he had great fears of death -> this was more than a tragic accident; he tasted the wrath of God on Calvary) 2) destiny of those who reject God (on the cross Jesus lost all the good that he had before -> those who reject God face the same prospect) 3) God’s gift of peace (which is not just a feeling of inner happiness; peace of God is primarily peace with God: new relationship of forgiveness and acceptance) 4) dimensions of the love of God (reality of divine love is inexpressibly great yet some of it can be comprehended though Christ’s sacrifice; Christ’s love was free, eternal, unreserved, sovereign) 5) meaning of God’s glory (do you see the glory of God in His wisdom, power, righteousness, truth, and love, supremely disclosed at Calvary? the Bible does and if you felt the true weight of your sins, so would you)
19. SONS OF GOD: what is a Christian? one who has God for his father; sonship is not a universal status but a supernatural gift through receiving Jesus, not natural but adoptive sonship; “You sum up the whole of New Testament teaching in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator. In the same way, you sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. […] Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”; climax of Bible: God’s revelation as Father; OT: Yahweh, the ‘great I AM’, emphasis on holiness, man must keep his distance in the presence of the Holy God -> NT: new factor added (OT still remains); God as Father; believers are his children who can approach him with confidence); all of us have positive ideal of fatherhood by which we judge our own and other’s fathers; God’s fatherhood for Jesus implied 1) authority 2) affection 3) fellowship 4) honour -> all this extends to God’s adopted children; adoption: A) highest privilege offered by the gospel - higher than justification which is the primary and fundamental blessing in the gospel but adoption involves a richer relationship with God; justification is a forensic idea (conceived in terms of law, viewing God as judge) <-> adoption is a family idea (conceived in terms of love, viewing God as father); adoption is a blessing that abides: concept of adoption is proof of the preservation of the saints; B) the entire Christian life has to be understood in terms of it; Sonship must be the controlling thought at every point; Christ calls all his disciple his brothers; Sermon on the Mount = royal family code: I) adoption is basis of Christian conduct (not scheme of rules but guiding principles; ethic of responsible freedom -> same what parents try to give their children); principles: 1) imitating the Father 2) glorifying the Father 3) pleasing the Father; Sermon on the Mount: II) adoption is basis of Christian prayer: the Father is always accessible to His children -> prayer must not be thought of in impersonal/mechanical terms, rather it must be free and bold (it doesn’t mean that our heavenly Father always answers our prayers in the form in which we offer them - His aim is to give good things that we need); “Good parents never simply ignore what their children are saying, nor simply disregard their feelings of need, and neither does God; but often He gives us what we should have asked for, rather than what we actually requested.”; Sermon on the Mount: III) adoption is basis of the life of faith (i.e. life of trusting God for one’s material needs; “It is needless, I hope, to make the point that one can live the life of faith without foregoing gainful employment - some are called to do this, no doubt, but to attempt it without specific guidance would be, not faith, but foolhardiness - there is a big difference! All Christians are, in fact, called to a life of faith, in the sense of following God’s will at whatever cost and trusting Him for the consequences. But all are tempted, sooner or later, to put status and security, in human terms, before loyalty to God’s call; and then, if they resist this temptation, they are at once tempted to worry about the likely effect of their stand - particularly when, as happened to the disciples to whom the Sermon was first preached, and as has happened to many more since, following Jesus has obliged them actually to forfeit some measure of security or prosperity which they could otherwise have expected to enjoy. On those thus tempted in the life of faith, Jesus brings the truth of their adoption to bear. […] If God cares for the birds, whose Father He is not, is it not plain that he will certainly care for you, whose Father He is?”; propitiation (only 4x in NT) ~ adoption (only 5x in NT) yet both thoughts are focal point of the whole NT teaching on Christian life -> 3-word summary of NT: adoption through propitiation; truth of adoption gives us the deepest insights in five further matters: A) adoption shows the greatness of God’s grace: NT gives us two yardsticks for measuring God’s love: 1) the cross 2) gift of sonship; adoption in the ancient world: mainly confined to childless, well-to-do parents, subjects: not infants but young adults who proved themselves fit and able to carry on a family name <-> God’s adoption is despite our character; adoption: act of free kindness, you become a father because you choose to not because you are bound to; adoption does not stop with the legal process - it is only the beginning; B) adoption shows the glory of Christian hope: hope is not a possibility but a guaranteed certainty, a promised inheritance: a share in the glory of Christ; experience of heaven: family gathering, face-to-face meeting with our Father-God and Jesus our brother; C) adoption gives key to understanding the ministry of the Holy Spirit: he is given to us as ‘the Spirit of adoption’: 1) he keeps us conscious that we are God’s children by free grace through Jesus Christ 2) he moves us to look to God as father 3) he impels us to act up to our position as royal children by manifesting family likeness (conforming to Christ), furthering the family welfare (loving the brethren), and maintaining the family honor (seeking God’s glory); D) adoption shows us the meaning and motives of ‘gospel holiness’ (= authentic Christian living vs ‘legal holiness’ = only outward appearances): essence of ‘gospel holiness’: simply a consistent living out of our filial relationship with God; adoptive relationship also motivates us for authentic holy living; “In this world, royal children have to undergo extra training and discipline, which other children escape, in order to fit them for their high destiny. It is the same with the children of the King of Kings. The clue to understanding all His dealings with them is to remember that throughout their lives He is training them for what awaits them, and chiselling them into the image of Christ. […] the Christian’s primary motive for holy living is not negative, the hope (vain!) that hereby he may avoid chastening, but positive, the impulse to show his love and gratitude to his adopting God by identifying himself with the Father’s will for him.”; adoption also helps us see the place of law in the Christian life: justification does not depend on the law yet adoption does as the means of pleasing the Father; sin doesn’t destroy justification or nullify adoption but mar our fellowship with the Father; E) adoption helps understand the problem of assurance: 1) family relationship lasts forever; “Perfect parents do not cast off their children. Christians may act the prodigal, but God will not cease to act the prodigal’s father.”; 2) adopted children need assurance that they belong, and a perfect father will not withhold it; dual witness of adoption: our spirit & God’s Spirit (both distinctly and together with our spirit) -> believer gains a “feeling knowledge” that their faith, adoption and hope in heaven is “really real”; source of assurance: not our inferences but the work of the Spirit (apart from as well as through our inferences); historic disputes: Romanists: denial of preservation & assurance -> wrong: what kind of father is he who never tells their children individually that he loves them but purposes to throw them out if they don’t behave?; “The Reformers and Wesley were right to say that assurance is integral to faith; the Puritans, however, were also right to lay more stress than either on the fact that Christians who grieve the Spirit by sin, and who fail to seek God with all their heart, must expect to miss the full fruition of this crowning gift of the double witness, just as careless and naughty children stop their parents’ smiles and provoke frowns instead. Some gifts are too precious for careless and naughty children, and this is a gift which our heavenly Father will, to some extent at least, hold back if He sees us to be in a state where it would spoil us, by making us think our Father did not care whether we lived holy lives or not. […] [T]he immediate message to our hearts of what we have studied in the present chapter is surely this: do I, as a Christian, understand myself? Do I know my own real identity? My own real destiny? I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Saviour is my brother; every Christian is my brother too. Say it over and over to yourself first thing in the morning, last thing at night, as you wait for the bus, any time when your mind is free, and ask that you may be enabled to live as one who knows it is all utterly and completely true. For this is the Christian’s secret of-a happy life?-yes, certainly, but we have something both higher and profounder to say. This is the Christian’s secret of a Christian life, and of a God-honouring life: and these are the aspects of the situation that really matter. May this secret become fully yours, and fully mine. To help us realise more adequately who and what, as children of God, we are, and are called to be, here are some questions by which we do well to examine ourselves again and again. Do I understand my adoption? Do I value it ? Do I daily remind myself of my privilege as a child of God? Have I sought full assurance of my adoption? Do I daily dwell on the love of God to me? Do I treat God as my Father in heaven, loving, honouring, and obeying Him, seeking and welcoming His fellowship, and trying in everything to please Him, as a human parent would want His child to do? Do I think of Jesus Christ, my Saviour and my Lord, as my brother too, bearing to me not only a divine authority but also a divine-human sympathy? Do I think daily how close He is to me, how completely He understands me, and how much, as my kinsman-redeemer, He cares for me? Have I learned to hate the things that displease my Father? Am I sensitive to the evil things to which He is sensitive? Do I make a point of avoiding them, lest I grieve Him? Do I look forward daily to that great family occasion when the sons of God will finally gather in heaven before the throne of God, their Father, and of the Lamb, their brother and their Lord? Have I felt the thrill of this hope? Do I love my Christian brothers, with whom I live day by day, in a way that I shall not be ashamed of when in heaven I think back over it? Am I proud of my Father, and of His family, to which by His grace I belong? Does the family likeness appear in me? If not, why not? God humble us; God instruct us; God make us His own true sons.”
20. THOU OUR GUIDE: many Christians believe in God’s guidance but are anxious that they will miss it; basis of divine guidance: 1) reality of God’s plan for us 2) his ability to communicate with us; in Scripture ‘wisdom’ always means knowledge of the course of action that will please God and secure life; divine guidance is a reality intended for, and promised to, every child of God -> Christians who miss it show only that they didn’t seek as they should; “Earnest Christians seeking guidance often go wrong about it. Why is this? Often the reason is that their notion of the nature and method of divine guidance is distorted. They look for a will-o’-the-wisp; they overlook the guidance that is ready to hand, and lay themselves open to all sorts of delusions. Their basic mistake is to think of guidance as essentially inward prompting by the Holy Spirit, apart from the written Word.”; ‘vocational’ choices: particular class of ‘guidance’ problems: choices in which all options appear lawful and good (eg pursue marriage or not? joining this or that church? having another child? which professions should I follow?); two features about divine guidances on ‘vocational choices’: 1) cannot be resolved by a direct application of a biblical teaching 2) because Scripture cannot decide directly, other factors eg. prompting & inclination becomes decisive; basis of mistake: to assume that 1) all guidance problems have these same two characteristics 2) this kind of guidance should be sought in all life; quest for super-spirituality (= inward voice of the Spirit decides & directs everything) sounds attractive but in practice leads only to frantic bewilderment or lunacy (eg asking the Lord whether you should wake up or not, or when you should get dressed); <-> God’s fundamental mode of guiding his rational creatures is by rational understanding and application of His written Word -> this limits the scope of ‘vocational’ guidance & also: only this whose basic attitudes are right are likely to be able to recognize ‘vocational’ guidance when it comes; “The fundamental guidance which God gives to shape our lives […] is not a matter of inward promptings apart from the Word but of the pressure on our consciences of the portrayal of God’s character and will in the Word, which the Spirit enlightens us to understand and apply to ourselves.”; basic form of divine guidance: presenting positive ideals as guidelines for all our living; Spirit of God leads within the limits which the Word sets -> otherwise the inclination you feel might be might be real but are; certainly not from the Spirit of God; common pitfalls: 1) unwillingness to think (false piety, inward impressions with no rational base <-> constant biblical summon to ‘consider’) 2) unwillingness to think ahead & weigh long-term consequences 3) unwillingness to take advice (sign of immaturity) 4) unwillingness to suspect oneself (dislike being realistic with ourselves; we can recognize rationalization in others and overlook in ourselves; “feelings” must not be mistaken for guidance - especially sexual feelings; we need to ask ourselves why we ‘feel’ a particular course to be right, and make ourselves give reasons & share it with someone we trust; we need to keep asking God to detect wicked ways in ourselves; we can never distrust ourselves too much) 5) unwillingness to discount personal magnetism (those who are not yet deeply aware of pride & self-deception in themselves cannot always detect these things in others; outstanding men are not necessarily wrong - but they are not necessarily right either! they and their views must be respected but may not be idolized) 6) unwillingness to wait (it is not God’s way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time; when in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God; when action is needed, light will come); but: it doesn’t follow that right guidance will be vindicated by trouble-free course thereafter; trouble should be always treated as a call to carefully check one’s ways; but trouble is not necessarily a sign of being off track at all (best example: Jesus himself); by every human standards, the cross was a waste - similarly, the Christian’s guided life may appear as a waste; God doesn’t always give us reasons for our frustrations and losses (eg Elizabeth Elliot: whole linguistic material stolen without any copies -> all her work wasted: “We must allow God to do what he wants to do. And if you are thinking that you know the will of God for your life and you are anxious to do that, you are probably in for a very rude awakening because nobody knows the will of God for his entire life…“); God not only restores, he turns our mistakes and goes into something good; God’s guidance is sovereign & secure: He not only guides is by showing the way but by ensuring we shall come safe home, regardless of our mistakes
21. INWARD TRIALS: there is a ministry of the gospel which is cruel: means to magnify grace but does the opposite: scales down problem of sin, loses touch with God’s purpose; doctrinally sound but application is inaccurate; stresses positive effects of becoming Christian (overcoming sin, self-fulfillment, heart’s desire), plays down rougher side of Christian life (daily chastening, war with Satan, periodic walk in darkness) -> false impression: Christian living = perfect bed of roses; other extreme (overstressing rough side) equally false, but first error is worse because false hopes are a greater evil than false fears; false hopes based on promising more than God actually did; second cruel feature of this ministry: considers problems and struggles as sign of sub-standard Christian life -> promise: reconsecration and handing problems to Christ will solve these issues & bring back happiness; consecration is indeed the way if the Christian slips back to deliberate sin - but it may not be so, and sooner or later the time will come in every Christian’s life when it is not so (eg. Job); false remedy will lead Christians to seek non-existent failures; main problem with this teaching: it loses sight of the method and purpose of grace; grace: God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love; purpose of grace: restore man’s relationship with God; “How does God in grace prosecute this purpose? Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh, and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstances, nor yet by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology; but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to Him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another-it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold Him fast.”; application: God uses our sins & mistakes to this end (i.e. to teach us to hold Him fast): see biblical examples (Abraham: loses patience in waiting for promised son, begets Ishmael -> God’s doesn’t talk to him for 13 years -> he learned to wait God’s time; Moses: tries to save his people by killing the Egyptian -> banished for decades in desert -> cured of his self-confidence; David: makes mistake with Bathsheba, Uriah, counting the people -> found repentance after each lapses, got closer to God than before; Jonah: runs away from God -> swallowed by a fish -> fulfills his mission); we need to be realists about ourselves and God
22. ADEQUACY OF GOD: Romans: high peak of Scripture: 1) doctrine 2) book of life 3) book of the church 4) God’s personal letter; the more experience you have as a Christian the more you will find Romans saying to you (~ touching the top of Mount Everest with a helicopter vs climbing up there -> experience of being on the top will be different); chapter 8 is the high peak of Romans (Everest principle: you cannot skip preceding chapters to appreciate chapter 8); Romans 8: 1) adequacy of the grace of God (vv 1-30, four gifts of God: righteousness, Holy Spirit, sonship, security) 2) adequacy of the God of grace (vv 31-39, shift focus from gift to Giver); two common factors of all real Christians: 1) commitment to all-round righteousness 2) exposure to all-round pressure; Paul’s suggested response: think of what you know of God through the gospel and apply, let evangelical thinking correct emotional thinking: 1) no opposition can finally crush us (God is adequate as sovereign protector, committed to his covenant; “Opposition is a fact: the Christian who is not conscious of being opposed had better watch himself, for he is in danger. Such unrealism is no requirement of Christian discipleship, but is rather a mark of failure in it.”); 2) no good thing will finally be withheld from us (God is adequate as sovereign benefactor, completes his redeeming work; “That the apostolic writers present the death of Christ as the ground and warrant of God’s offer of forgiveness, and that men enter into forgiveness through repentance and faith in Christ, will not be disputed. But does this mean that, as a loaded gun is only potentially explosive, and an act of pulling the trigger is needed to make it go off, so Christ’s death achieved only a possibility of salvation, needing an exercise of faith on man’s part to trigger it off and make it actual? If so, then it is not strictly Christ’s death that saves us at all, any more than it is loading the gun that makes it fire; strictly speaking, we save ourselves by our faith, and for all we know, Christ’s death might not have saved anyone, since it might have been the case that nobody believed the gospel. But that is not how the New Testament sees it. The New Testament view is that the death of Christ has actually saved ‘us all’ - all, that is to say, whom God foreknew, and has called and justified, and will in due course glorify. For our faith, which from man’s point of view is the means of salvation, is from God’s point of view part of salvation, and is as directly and completely God’s gift to us as is the pardon and peace of which faith lays hold.”; first commandment: not a question of theology (other God’s don’t exist) but question of loyalty (don’t serve other gods); Israel was to serve God exclusively not because they owed it to Him but because He was worthy of their exclusive trust; we Christians are called to do the same too - yet we often fear of taking risks because we don’t trust that God will provide for us; “Have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful to you, and adequate for you. You will never need more than He can supply, and what He supplies, both materially and spiritually, will always be enough for the present. ‘No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly’ (Psalm 84:II, RSV). ‘God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it’ (I Corinthians 10:13, RSV). ‘My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:8). Think on these thingsIand let your thoughts drive out your inhibitions is serving your Master.”); 3) no accusation can ever disinherit us (God is adequate as sovereign champion, He will have justifying verdict on us; “There are two sorts of sick consciences, those that are not aware enough of ain and those that are not aware enough of pardon”; Paul reminds us of God’s grace in election and sovereignty in judgment & Christ’s effectiveness in mediation;); 4) no separation from Christ’s love can ever befall us (God is adequate as sovereign keeper, he settles our destiny in divine love; human love can be thwarted - divine love cannot; “…it is the Christian’s privilege to know for certain that God loves him im-mutably, and that nothing can at any time part him from that love, or come between him and the final enjoyment of its fruits.”); “The purpose of our relationship with God in Christ is the perfecting of the relationship itself. How could it be otherwise, when it is a love-relationship?”